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What Services Are Available for Troubled Adolescents in the State of North Dakota? Where Does Charles Hall Youth Services Fit In?

The State of North Dakota believes that children thrive best when sheltered, nurtured and loved by their natural, biological families. When that is not possible, the State strives to provide the “least restrictive” care, placing a child with members of his/her own family or a foster family. Additional out-of-home placements are available to the youth of North Dakota depending upon their needs. The spectrum of placements beyond the family structure, least restrictive to most restrictive, include:

Foster Home

Residential Child Care Facility (RCCF) / Charles Hall Youth Services

Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF)

Correctional Facility

It should be noted that children often move up or down the ladder of services available within the State of North Dakota. A youth might begin his/her out-of-home placement within a residential child care facility, move to a psychiatric residential treatment facility, and then “step down” or back to the RCCF or foster home before returning to his/her family.

Youth of CHYS, ages 10 to 19, have been adjudicated into the foster care system for a variety of reasons. Many of our youth come from families which are unable or unwilling to provide adequate care for their teenagers. Still others are court-ordered to us due to drug or alcohol abuse, truancies, run-away charges, or charges of delinquency or unruliness. A good number of our youth struggle with post-traumatic stress (triggered by some horrific act which happened to them when they were younger), mental illnesses (especially depression and anxiety), or attention deficit disorder. Many struggle with thoughts of suicide, eating disorders, and/or other self-destructive acts.

Charles Hall Youth Services serves approximately 60 youth each year.

45% of our youth are Caucasian, 50% are Native American, and 5% represent African American, Hispanic, or other ethnic groups.

60% of our children are from the Bismarck-Mandan area, the remainder are from other counties within North Dakota.

The three most common reasons for youth placement at CHYS are unruly behaviors (45%), delinquencies (20%), and drug/alcohol use (15%).

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